Sunday, November 10, 2013

A DeKalb educator: 'I fear for the future of our schools if... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

A DeKalb educator: 'I fear for the future of our schools if... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

A DeKalb educator: 'I fear for the future of our schools if this charter is adopted.' 

DeKalb parents, teachers vote on charter cluster proposal
HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Matthew Lewis (foreground left), a DeKalb parent and member of the organizing committee, helps voter Karla Jennings get a ballot Tuesday to vote on a charter cluster proposal at Druid Hills High School. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Here is another teacher letter to the DeKalb school board, this one urging the board not to approve the Druid Hills charter cluster.  This letter was written by Susan McWethy, teacher librarian at Druid Hills Middle School. 
You can read another point of view from a teacher here. If you read both these letters, you will have a good sense of the issues and the implications of Monday's school board vote.
 Dear Mr. Thurmond and Members of the Board,
As an educator and parent of former Druid Hills Cluster students, I have serious concerns about the Druid Hills Charter Cluster proposal. 

I am in a position to talk informally with many teachers.  It is very apparent that they do not have the information they need to fully understand this charter and its ramifications, both for their students and for their teaching careers -- not to mention the county as a whole.  The plan was hastily unveiled to teachers last April, and the 200-plus arcane waivers were revealed only three weeks before the start of school.  Anyone knows that the busiest times for teachers are at the end and before the start of the school year, when their priorities are their students.

The reactions I've received from teachers when the subject arises are usually one of three: 
1) They are relying on the "good faith" of the charter community who are at least trying 
Get Schooled: A DeKalb Teacher of the Year urges a 'yes' vote on charter cluster Monday
The DeKalb school board is scheduled to vote Monday on the petition to put Druid Hills High School and six feeder schools under the management of a nonprofit organization. The cluster would operate under its own administrators and board of directors. If approved by the board Monday and the state ...

LAUSD GIVES ME A CHANCE TO BE A HERO FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND FAMILIES - CARE TO HELP? - Perdaily.com

LAUSD GIVES ME A CHANCE TO BE A HERO FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND FAMILIES - CARE TO HELP? - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD GIVES ME A CHANCE TO BE A HERO FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND FAMILIES - CARE TO HELP?


Hero Snowden.jpg
(Mensaje se repite en EspaƱol)

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) offered me close to a quarter of a million dollars and vesting in my lifetime health benefits, if I would agree to settle and not go to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) to vindicate myself against charges fabricated against me. I reported that my school, Central High School Continuation, was graduating students and giving diplomas to students with low elementary school English language and math skills. After stalling the process for 3 years, most financially strapped teachers would have jumped at this offer, but I could not.

What I could not rationalize away was that I was being given the option to just walk away pretty much financially intact, if I would just forget about the fact that 59 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, LAUSD remains segregated (closed to 90% Latino and Black) and toxic to students and teachers. But more importantly, I see a real armageddon for our society in the not too distant future, if something is not done to finally address the travesty that LAUSD and districts like it around the United States represent to predominantly poor and minority students of color. Nobody is offering these students any money after screwing them out of their right to an education and the ability to reach their potential and dreams, so how could I 

Is Loki after YOUR PENSION? You Need The Pension Avenger

Big Education Ape: 11-10-13 Fred Klonsky | Running for our pensions. | VOTE 4 Fred Klonsky:


Is Loki after YOUR PENSION? 




You Need The Pension Avenger


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Nite Cap 11-10-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2


James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."


A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAP


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